"Snowjacks are monsters native to the north the size of a large hound resembling a hybrid between a fox and a cat. Their thick silvery-white fur is a prized commodity for its ice-resistance and their blue eyes are used as alchemical ingredients in many sight altering potions. They are known to live on the steep slopes of the Ridge Mountains. Their large size and their intelligence had  caused many of the humans of the region to believe them as petty deities or oracles whose keen eyes can pierce the fog of time.

Extract from "On the North"

 

---

 

 

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* 

 

Sofia arrived in front of Lady Siri's room and knocked on the door and before her knuckles lost the sensation of hitting the hardwood the door opened.

 

In front of the frontier noble, a tall elf with a curious blue flower braided into her long black hair appeared. Popping out from under the elf's arm a pair of differently coloured eyes watched the noble like a curious animal.

 

"Greetings." The at least head taller elf greeted Sofia with a melodious accent.

 

"G-greetings, I'm Sofia of House Junker." The frontier noble blurted out, not expecting the high noble to be already waiting for her. 

 

"Oh, was the previous person a noble too?" The Blackworm maid asked the noble scion. The elf continued to smile a little as she spoke making the Enchanter not sure if the maid asked out of genuine concern about her etiquette or was the maid trying to save Sofia's face in front of her Mistress.

 

"No, they were Kuprum-ranked students."

 

"And you are?" 

 

"I'm a noble... but also an Aurum-ranked student." Sofia answered hoping that the noble whose eyes traveled back and forward between the elf and her liked honesty.

 

"Hmmm," The elf hummed thoughtfully before turning around. "I will be waiting for you here, Lady Siri."

 

"Annoying." Sofia watched as the cryomancer grumbled dangerously in response to the elf while also holding onto her maid's hand like a drowning sailor clasping onto a raft.

 

"Miss Sofia, you're going to crumple up that letter of yours." The elf commented as she spotted the noble restlessly running her fingers along the edge of the soft paper envelope.

 

"Oh," Sofia looked down at the backstabbing envelope. The Academy had pushed the burden of the potential reputational damage onto her while also making sure that they would win no matter how the high noble reacted. If the bratty and unruly northerner lashed out at messenger the Oriripoli mages had offset most of Blackworm's fury at her and if the scared and confused girl in a foreign land far away from home had simply made a mistake and was more than happy to fix it, the mages also win with Sofia taking most of the risk.

 

She pondered the options she had conflicted on what she thought about the strange noble. Of course, the option to not risk anything and not give Lady Blackworm the letter was off the table, leaving her to give the cursed piece of paper now or later on.

 

"It's for you, actually." The frontier noble said. She figured that rather than giving the letter to Lady Blackworm herself, handing it to her maid was the safest option. It would leave her with a day's worth of access to the high noble and if Lady Siri was indeed a hot-headed brat most of the reputation damage would land on the poor maid.

 

As the piece of paper left her hand, Sofia, the scion of the heroic House Junker and an honourable member of the nobility, first political decision was to throw somebody else under the wagon.

 

A pair of glowing eyes followed the letter before a soft longing purr caused the enchanter to turn around in search of a cat as the elf retreated into the room. When the door closed and the sound of the metal bolt shutting it close reverberated throughout the corridor Lady Siri finally turned around to face Sofia.

 

For the first time since the Junker met the mysterious cryomancer, she could see Siri's face without any obstructions. The youthful face staring at Sofia was extremely pale, giving the cryomancer a striking resemblance to Pruina from the fresco on the temple's ceiling. The one thing keeping the high noble from being mistaken as the divine Aspect of Winter was her long straight hair in the colour of tar which in no shape or form could be mistaken for the white swan's fluff adoring the Aspect's head.

 

The exotic dress the girl wore under the traveler's cloak seemed to gleam like a set of metal armour in the sun. The expensive fabric hugging the girl's petite body seemed to give one last sparkle of magic light before Lady Siri veiled herself in the grayish cloth.

 

"You're collar is down." Lady Siri pointed at Sofia's exposed neck, causing the noble to forget how to speak as her serious tone didn't match with her book-like appearance.

 

"It's not that cold today," Sofia replied after a moment before starting to pat her dress down, smoothing out any fold it might have. "Is there an issue with how I look?"

 

Rather than answering her question, Lady Siri's eyes lingered on the frontier woman's neck muttering something about decency and moral degradation before her large eyes turned their colourful gaze away from her. 

 

Sofia began to go through all that she knew about what the necromancer spoke of. The matter of the proper way to dress was an important matter for everyone and especially for nobles whose choice of clothes determined other's perception of them before a single word was uttered. The general lines between which the nobles judged and divided themselves with were how conservative or forthright they were with their clothes. Although those terms seemed to hold different amounts of power depending on the person, with men carrying far less about the subject than women unless a hidden and blurry line was crossed.

 

If someone had known where she stood as a Lady, Sofia would have answered that she was a conservative who found the obvious trotting on the edge of what was acceptable by others to be immodest if not outright deviant behaviour. Perhaps this confused the frontier woman the most as by any standard the dress she wore was perfectly modest more so than the strange sleeveless dress Lady Siri was wearing.

 

"Hello, hue-man," Lady Siri's voice seemed distant causing the flat-chested woman to turn around. "Are you coming?" The girl said while casually walking backwards with her hands behind her back.

 

Quicker than Sofia thought she would, her body moved out of her thoughtful stupor and swiftly joined Lady Siri's side before matching her stride with the northerner.

 

"I think you might have missed my name when I was introducing myself Lady Siri-"

 

"I didn't."

 

"Huh?" The frontier noble turned to look at the hooded figure as they exited the building. 

 

"Are we going to the library?" The fair-skinned cryomancer asked while a certain spark appeared in her eyes, causing Sofia to imagine a snowjack finally seeing its chance to attack.

 

"Not now," She replied to the Firmusian feline predator. "First, I was told that your last guides didn't do their job properly so we will need to fill out some paperwork-"

 

"Evil!" The girl's face lifted up in shock as the predatory look inside her eyes disappeared, replaced by fear.